Watson falls at first hurdle as Halep fights back to defeat Brit at Flushing Meadows

Heather Watson came within touching distance of an unlikely victory in the US Open first round before falling short of emulating fellow Brits Laura Robson and Dan Evans and making the second round.

The 21 year-old Channel Islander battled hard against Romania’s world number 19 Simona Halep before going down 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, in a match which, realistically, she was never expected to win.

Halep, who took the title in last week’s WTA Tour event in New Haven to reach a career high ranking, was in deep trouble at 4-4 in the second set with Watson 40-0 up on serve.

Disappointment: Watson took the first set but lost in three sets

But the British number two lost the
next five points to turn that into a break of serve, and once the
favourite managed to edgily serve the set she found the confidence you
would associate with her recent form.

Watson,
under the temporary coaching charge of Jeremy Bates, up to that point
had strictly followed his instructions to play aggressively and clearly
took her opponent by surprise.

Yet
her reservoirs of self-belief are still shallow at the moment, having
missed two months of the season in the Spring with the remnants of
glandular fever and a general sense of burnout.

In three attempts she
has yet to win a match in the main event at Flushing Meadows despite
having won the junior championship here in 2009.

Tough venue: Watson was US Open junior champion in 2009 but has never won a senior match at Flushing Meadows

There
were at least signs that she is heading in the right direction, faced
with someone now much higher ranked and who, like her, is an excellent
athlete.

Watson got off
to the brighter start but her early 2-0 advantage was quickly pegged
back. After breaking again she failed to serve the first set out at 5-3
but then broke in the next game as dusk began to fall.

With
numbing predictability Halep then took a tactical toilet break, but
still showed frustration when she failed to pull away early in the
second, angrily throwing her racket towards the chair.

Gap: Halep is ranked 57 places above Watson at No 19

When
Watson broke back for 3-3 the momentum seemed to be with her, but that
ninth game, when she became a little tentative, proved decisive.

In
the end the Guernsey player’s tally of 23 winners was dwarfed by her
mammoth 61 unforced errors, figures that told of how hard she pressed.

The
match was over in exactly two hours and Watson now has to regroup and
try to salvage something from a tennis year that after a promising
beginning in Australia has turned into one to forget.